Lawyers Vie For Retiring Judge's Seat

Vote Pits Drug Court Attorney Against Private Lawyer Aug. 31

July 31, 2004|By Jon Burstein Staff Writer

One attorney is a driving force behind Broward County's Drug Court, representing addicts as they straighten out their lives. The other is in private practice advocating for everyone from water drainage district boards to grandfathers. Each has more than two decades of South Florida legal experience.

Assistant Public Defender Gisele Pollack and civil attorney Ellen Feld will face off in the Aug. 31 election to fill retiring Broward County Court Judge William Herring's Group 7 seat. They have been voracious campaigners who have spent months crisscrossing the county as they vie for a six-year term to preside over misdemeanor cases and civil cases involving less than $15,000.

Pollack touts herself in her campaign literature as "the only candidate with daily courtroom experience," while Feld bills herself as "the clear choice for the people's court." Neither shies from explaining why her legal background makes her better suited to wear a black robe.

Since state ethics laws forbid the nonpartisan judicial candidates from taking stands on issues, Broward County voters can only evaluate Pollack and Feld by their legal backgrounds.

CANDIDATES TOUT EXPERIENCE

Pollack, 46, has been a fixture at the Broward Public Defender's Office for all but four years of her 22-year legal career.

She's spent the last decade in the Drug Court, where nonviolent felony offenders can be diverted rather than go through traditional criminal proceedings. Using what has been termed "therapeutic jurisprudence," the court provides a treatment and monitoring plan to help drug addicts kick their habits and, if successful, they can keep the felony charge that brought them into the system off their record.

Pollack said her work in Drug Court has personal meaning. Twelve years ago, she sought treatment for a drinking problem she said developed during a painful stretch in her life. Pollack said she has been sober ever since.

"I've worked with thousands and thousands of people over all my time with the Public Defender's Office and have done so in a way in which we've obtained some very good results, with people changing their lives for the better," Pollack said. "I feel my talents could be utilized on the bench now."

Feld, also 46, has been in private practice for her entire 21-year legal career, handling what she describes as a diverse caseload including personal injury lawsuits, family matters and contracts. Within the last year, she said she has appeared in court representing the South Broward Drainage District on a bond validation issue and an elderly man fighting with his stepchildren over custody of his wife.

"I'm running to be in the county court because people come into the courtroom more times than not without lawyers," Feld said. "As a judge I feel I could be a little more hands-on in helping them and guiding them through the system hopefully in an effort they won't return."

Feld said she has represented "clients from all walks of life" and her experience as a trial attorney has given her a clear understanding of what needs to go on inside and outside of the courtroom for a case to proceed. She said Pollack's claim to have "daily courtroom experience" shouldn't be weighed heavily by voters.

"Professionally, I have been in trial courts for 21 years and my opponent has been in a specialty court for over the past 10 years," Feld said. "In the Drug Court, there are no trials, there are no rules of procedure and there are no rules of evidence like there are in the trial court. It's a social service. It's a great court. It's a great social service."

Pollack countered that Drug Court can be adversarial, and she has to appear in other criminal courtrooms to represent her clients.

"My experience has not been limited to a courtroom where we just do therapeutic jurisprudence," Pollack said. "My experience has involved going to many other courtrooms while at the same time being in Drug Court."

Pollack said that in her years prior to working in the Drug Court, she handled more than 57 jury trials and numerous bench trials. She said Feld's level of experience "seems to be greater and greater with every speech I hear [from her]."

Feld said she has handled numerous trials, but could not say how many.

POLLACK: ALCOHOL ISSUE PAST

Pollack said she felt Feld was taking a potshot at her early in the campaign when Feld commented to various groups that she was the only candidate with a clean Florida Bar record. Pollack received a private reprimand from the Bar for failing to show up for a trial in 1992 because of her alcohol problem. Pollack said she immediately entered rehabilitation after she had to call the judge to say she wasn't going to appear.

"I know that this happened in my life; I can't change it," Pollack said. "I can only move forward, and that's what I've done."

Feld said she merely was stating a fact when she discussed how she has a clean bar record and she doesn't understand how talking about her qualifications has been turned into her taking a jab at Pollack.